VA Nominee

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Washington Post
December 3, 2007
Pg. 2
The Week

The Senate Committee on Veterans' Affairs is set to take up the nomination of retired Army Lt. Gen. James B. Peake as secretary of veterans affairs on Wednesday.
Peake, who served as the Army's surgeon general from 2000 to 2004, would be the first physician and the first general to serve in the VA post. The department has been without a permanent chief since Jim Nicholson resigned in July.
Peake told senators last week, in response to committee questions, that he views caring for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder as a "very high priority." He also said immediate action is needed in updating medical record-keeping and improving disability payments, the Associated Press reported.
Peake told senators that he was not personally aware of problems in military health care while he was Army surgeon general, and he called poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center "unacceptable." His successor, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, was forced out in March after reports of substandard care in military medical facilities for veterans returning from war.
The VA nominee seems eager to enact change quickly.
"Timely is yesterday!" Peake wrote.
--Rachel Dry
 
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